1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to magnetic clips, specifically to an improved construction of magnetic clips which are user friendly because they have fulcrum and lever controls built into them which enable an operator while using only one hand to place or remove the magnetic clip onto or off of a particular location on a sheet or set of stacked sheets in a book.
2. Description of Prior Art
Several magnetic clips are known which can be attached to a set of object or objects, such as a book sheet or sheets. These known magnetic clips and my invention have several structural and functional characteristics in common. At a particular location on a sheet or clamped group of sheets several of these known magnetic clips and my invention magnetically and frictionally clamp or unclamp that sheet or group of sheets between two opposing magnetically attracted members held in a face to face parallel alignment by magnetic attraction.
When the fabricator of my preferred embodiment or its prior art equivalent anticipates that the operator will need to grasp several sheets of paper simultaneously the fabricator will allow sufficient slack portions of the attachment means in the hinge fold area so the slack portions can be vertically expandable enough to allow the grasped set of article or articles to force the slack attachment means sections to expand vertically to create the vertical space needed to house the volume of space required by the varying vertical dimensions of the grasped set of multiple sheets.
The attachment means has an intrinsic ability to automatically return an open magnetic clip to a previously aligned closed position because the attachment means can be constructed out of a wide variety of flexible materials, such as paper, rubber, leather, plastic, and various impregnated fibrous material, many of which have an intrinsic ability after a few foldings to imprint a memory within their own affected molecular structure of where the hinge had previously been folded and therefore a proclivity to automatically return to the same aligned closed position from an open position with little or no guidance from the operator's digits; and
All of the previous magnetic clips heretofore known suffer from a number of disadvantages:                A) One negative characteristic that most of these known magnetic clips share, but my invention does not, is that when both opposing firm structure members are held in a face to face parallel alignment along a major planar surface of each member by magnetic attraction, before being attached to a sheet or set of stacked sheets, the magnetic bond which holds the distal sections of each element to its opposing member is difficult to disengage with only one hand. The opposing magnetically attached elements should be quickly separable at their leading edges so that each opposing element can be easily placed on either side of the targeted sheet, and at a particular location on the sheet. When the opposing members are reunited with each other the magnetic bond will be reestablished and the clip will have gained a significant purchase upon the targeted sheet so that a significant remainder of both opposing elements can be simultaneously slid inwards on either side of the targeted location on a sheet of paper and thereby become securely attached to the sheet at that location.        B) Worse yet, on many prior art magnetic clips, the magnetic bond is frequently so strong between the opposing members that the separation of the leading edges of the opposing members from each other absolutely requires manipulation by digits from two hands to break the magnetic bond holding the opposing members to each other. After separation it is sometimes possible for the operator to position the opposing clip members on either side of the targeted set of object or objects using the digits of one hand, but more often the digits of both hands will be needed. Frequently, considerable further digital manipulation of the clipping device is required from dexterous fingers to finally move the clip's opposing members towards each other until they are again magnetically bonded to each other and now frictionally retain the targeted sheet or set of stacked sheets between the clip members. Handicapped persons with even a slight lack of digital motor skills find prior art magnetic clips difficult to manipulate.        C) Inventors of other known magnetic clips concentrated mainly on establishing that magnetic clips containing thin magnetically bonded plates could well perform the role of frictionally retaining a sheet or set of stacked sheets between two opposing magnetically bonded thin plates. The concept of using a lever and fulcrum that is actually built into a thin magnetic clip to help separate the leading edges of opposing plate members from each other has not been known in the art of creating magnetic clips prior to this invention.        D) Many prior art magnetic clips require that specific polarities be imposed upon a magnetic member so it can be properly mated to a facing oppositely polarized magnetic member and thereby achieve their magnetic bond. These prior art clips need magnets whose polarity configurations are sensitive and critical so that they are expensive to fabricate in-house and even more expensive to purchase on the open market. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,103,756 to Korkames (1992), 4,258,493 to Kettlestrings (1981), and 4,255,837 to Holtz (1981), all specify that opposing magnets are needed, and that opposite poles face opposite one another. All these magnetic clips are more difficult to operate with one hand than mine is, as are the magnetic clips seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,713,844 to Mueller (1955), and 2,448,611 to Martin (1948). However prior art magnetic clips can be useful when teaching magnetism, since they can be used to demonstrate the concrete object lesson that magnets with multiple opposing polarities can be attracted to each other along all the opposing polarities. My embodiments also can be fabricated to teach this concrete object lesson since all of my embodiments, including the preferred embodiment, can be fabricated so that an armature member (22) lever when constructed of a firm magnetic member lever with oppositely polarized magnetic domains to that of the magnetic domains of the magnetic member (20) lever can be substituted for the ferric armature member (22) lever specified in all of my embodiments.        E) In the majority of usage events the skilled operator will prefer to maximally insert the magnetic clip so that its fold directly abuts the edge of the targeted sheet. While using the prior art clips to abut the sheet's edge with the attachment means's fold the operator would have to slide 90%+ sections of the inside surfaces of both opposing elements of the clip over and under the surfaces of the targeted sheet until sheet-edge to attachment-means-fold abutment occurs. In the same situation my clip with a lever and fulcrum will require only the sliding of those inside surface sections of the clip which are located proximally to the fulcrum, about 12% of the entire average device, to be easily slid over and under the surfaces of the targeted sheet until the sheet-edge to attachment-means-fold abutment occurs. To abut the fold of prior art bookmarks with the edge of the targeted sheet usually requires the sliding of the prior art clip inwards and over and under the targeted sheet commencing at the very front of the clip and ending at the rear of the clip where the fold is constructed. Consequently, while using only the digits of one hand, 95% of the prior art's clip usually has to be slid inwards over and under the surfaces of the targeted sheet to achieve sheet-edge to attachment-means-fold abutment whereas only 12% of my clip has to be slid inwards over and under the surfaces of the targeted sheet to achieve sheet-edge to attachment-means-fold abutment, all the while using only two fingers of one hand. The sheet-edge to attachment-means-fold abutment is desirable because this minimizes the inadvertent dislodging of the clip from its marked sheet, and because the less sliding of the device over a delicate sheet of paper the less chance that the sheet of paper will be wrinkled or torn during the clipping process.        